Hallo,

We saved the best for last!  The Autobahn took us (part of the way) to Switzerland.  However, before we could get there we drove through and ate lunch in Austria and also drove through Liechtenstein…two extra countries we weren’t expecting to pass through!  I think you can truly count Austria as we ate lunch there…at Macca’s. Ha  We found the most beautiful scenery by a lake in Austria.  Cory got out, while Bea and Teddy were asleep, to capture it on camera.

The drives have been extra fun as you can hear sweet conversations from the back seat and games of ‘I Spy’!  We’ve also had many jam sessions including the kids hearing the song we danced to at our wedding.  Bea listened intently!  This time with them was priceless!

The scenery just continued to get more beautiful as we drove….sunshine on the mountains, fall colors, green grass, snow and lots and lots of tunnels through the mountains.  That was probably Bea and Teddy’s favorite part! Ha

As the snow continued to fall harder we realized we needed to purchase gloves to play in the snow instead of the cotton ones we had.  Then our next stop was the best of all….to see Jess!  So our international family vacations always include a Schaer!  Jess is the older daughter of the family I lived with when I went to Australia.  I hadn’t seen her in 5 years and I all but jumped out of the car to hug her neck!  Yes, it was snowing; and no, I didn’t have on a coat!  It was so great to see her again!

Jess lives in Lauterbrunnen but we stayed up the mountain in Murren which is only accessible via cable car.  It’s a car free town so we took a quick ride on the cable car and a train ride then we walked to our apartment.  The town has 350 people that live there permanently and one family is the Sigrists….Jess’ boyfriend’s family.  He’s not even in the country right now and his family opened their home to us for dinner that evening.  They also let us stay in one of their rental apartments during our visit.  We are so grateful!  After the kids went to bed, Jess joined us at our apartment for a chat and it was just like old times being in her bedroom in Australia 12 years ago!

Speaking of sleeping, in every hotel we’ve stayed in since we left Frankfurt, we have had twin beds pushed together to make a king.  You also only receive a blanket/duvet (no top sheet) and (flat) euro shams as pillows.  It’s not wrong; it’s just really different.

We woke up the next morning with lots of snow on the ground!  We had the most relaxing morning just playing with Jess indoors.  We walked to a delicious Swiss lunch (at the only restaurant open right now); Teddy really enjoyed his crocodile and lion shaped chicken.  We toured the town’s  two streets.  Since it’s off season, we were the only ones in the street so we had a snow ball fight of course!  Freida and Charlie Sigrist had us over for dinner again tonight!  Bea and Teddy have made themselves at home by enjoying their sons’ old Legos.  Again, Cory and I loved our late evening chat with Jess!

Thursday we went down the cable car and drove to Thun for lunch and walk around (in the rain) this cute town.  Tonight Freida fixed us a fondu meal.  The Swiss way is cheese and bread with hot tea as an added digestive.  We have more than enjoyed our time in Murren!

Freida even made us breakfast on Friday where we had her homemade bread and tried quince (fruit) jelly.  Yum!  Then we couldn’t leave without a proper play in the snow!  Jess built a snowman and Teddy quickly knocked it down.  Boys!  Bea had the best time; Teddy did too when he wasn’t cold.  He’ll have to learn to keep his gloves on better next time!

All good things must come to an end though.  After warming, cleaning and packing up, we borrowed a sled to pull our suitcase, Bea and Teddy to the train station since it was snowing and the ground was covered too.  Then the short train and cable car rides back down the mountain.  Teddy especially loved all these modes of transportation!

Then we had to say bye to Jess. 😦  Our visit was so wonderful; it was truly like we hadn’t missed a beat since the last time we saw her.  I teared up driving away just thinking how fortunate I was to meet the Schaer’s all those years ago!

We thought our adventures were over there.  As we drove to Dijon, France (to spend the night before driving in to Paris the next day for our flight home), Google took us on some back roads.  This would’ve been fine if it hadn’t been snowing buckets!  Thank you Cory for knowing how to drive in such crazy weather!

Thanks for letting us share our European adventures with you!

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea and Teddy

International Macca’s have balloons!

Walking down one of the Mürren streets

Eating breakfast while watching it snow

They love Jess!

Riding the train

Time to play in the snow

Daddy the pack mule with Frieda pushing the stroller

Hallo wieder (again)!

We’re in our station wagon on our way to the German countryside!  We’re following the Romantic Road through Bavaria and our first stop is Wurzburg.  We toured the Residentz which was the home of the Prince-Bishops starting in the mid-18th century.  It was massive upon first sight and had beautiful rooms with large tapestries and paintings including a large stairwell area with four large ceiling frescos depicting the Europeans, Asians, Africans and (the savage) Americans.  We had lunch a delicious Bavarian style restaurant while watching a bright blue sky over the original prince-bishops home (450 years older than the Residentz) on a beautiful hill with vineyards all around it and the Old Main Bridge decorated with statues of some 12 saints.  It was so picturesque!  That was just the beginning of the unbelievable scenery we were about to see!

Continuing on the Romantic Road to Rothenburg ob der Tauber…the cutest German town we saw!  It’s one of the towns that built a wall around their city in the 13th century and went dormant in the 1600s due to the various plagues and war-wrought poverty…and that preserved its history weirdly enough.  We stayed up later tonight to experience the Night Watchman’s Tour.  He told fun stories about the town’s history and exactly how this little town managed to stay safe during WWII.  A US General had always wanted to see this picturesque town in person after growing up with a painting of the town in his home that his mom had acquired in a visit to the town many years before.  We stayed at the cutest boutique hotel (with only stairs!) ha  Wouldn’t you know it at the hotel, we ran into another Aggie…about 52 years Cory’s senior and a retired Air Force General!  He and Cory had a lovely chat later on that day while the kids (and I) napped.

We took in Rothenburg by walking part of the old city wall.  Cory would not have been a great wall watcher as he had to constantly duck to keep from hitting his head on the low beams.  Bea also practiced her bow shooting out the narrow openings in the wall.  The view of the town from here though was absolutely stunning!  The cutest half timber houses with colorful flowers in their flower boxes!  Again Bea had her playground radar on and found one.  However it was raining.  We said their bottoms would get wet.  Bea said, “we can play on the playground because Momma’s got Oxiclean!”  We walked the cobblestone streets and enjoyed the Christmas and toy shops.  We ate at Zurholl which served very authentic Bavarian food and the foundation of the building dates back to 900.  We tried schnellenballen, a delicious German pastry for dessert….yum!

The next day we drove on through Dinkelsbuhl then to Nordlingen; two quaint towns on the route.  We stopped in Nordlingen for lunch and went into St. George Church.  We took a minute to pray at the altar.  It was a really sweet moment with our family!  Bea and Teddy have sung so many play school songs while in Europe.  Bea is normally skipping while she sings!  They have mostly sung Joshua fought the battle at Jericho song (Bea learned recently at play school) and The BIBLE (Teddy recently learned).

On to Augsburg this evening where we stayed in a fancy hotel where Napoleon (and other famous people) once stayed.  We found yummy German food for supper while we played Uno.  We have really used this trip, not only for seeing new places, for family time.

On Monday, we woke up to snow….lots of it and big flakes!  This is Teddy’s first time to see snow!  Bea was giddy!  This is also the first snow of the season here!  We drove in the snow to Linderhof Castle then received a private tour!  Yes, you read that correctly!  There is something to be said for traveling off-peak season.  You might miss a few things but definitely not the crowds!  It snowed chunks again!

Next stop, Neuschwanstein Castle… except we messed up the timing (summer vs winter hours) and missed getting to buy tickets for that day.  Luckily our hotel was only 7 minutes away in Fussen!  We woke up early Tuesday morning and took a carriage ride (all by ourselves) up to Neuschwanstein!  It was so beautiful covered in fresh, white snow!  Merida, aka Princess Bea, took lots of pictures in front of her castle!  I wore my grandmother’s pink pashmina as this was her favorite castle!

On a side note, this country loves candy!  King Ludwig did so much that most of his teeth were gone by the age of 30 from eating too much!  Bea and Teddy have been offered more candy (and desserts unsolicited) here.  They sure have enjoyed it all!

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy

Residents in Wurzburg

View from lunch in Wurzburg

City wall in Tothenburg o.d.t.

Schnellenballen dessert

So excited to see the snow!

Linderhof Castle

On carriage ride up to Neuschwanstein Castle

A princess and her daddy at her castle

Zoo and beautiful fall colors

Many of these hugs end in tackles

Kid utensils

Hallo from Amsterdam!

When we arrived Sunday night, we were the only people in the customs line…cannot get much quicker than that!  Our first order of business the next morning was a Canal Cruise.  We saw beautiful architecture, so many leaning buildings (because of the high water table marshlands) and some really expensive row houses.  Boat houses are far more affordable (only 700K Euro)!  We found a cute little lunch spot down a (tight) alley where we ate savory pancakes, that look like crepes, filled with apple and bacon/cheese.  It has sprinkled on us each day in Amsterdam but we haven’t melted yet!  We walked the canal route this afternoon and enjoyed a stroll through the flea market.  We also have been amazed at all the cyclists; you have never seen so many bikes at one time!  We also decided we must walk through the Red Light District.  The afternoon here is much milder…thank goodness! 😉  We have done a lot of walking today; our hotel is very centrally located!

Saturday morning we grabbed (free) breakfast at the hotel…a huge perk to Cory’s status with Marriott.  We pretended to be locals today when we rented bikes and visited many playgrounds!  Our first park was an urban one that included trikes to ride on.  It also had some chickens and a rabbit.  Thanks to my friend’s uncle for most of our day’s activities!  We hit a second park before going to the highlight of the day…Groot Melkhuis!  It was a cafe that had a playground and a bounce house.  What could be better for kids!  This is located in Vondelpark which was a sprawling park full of people.  Teddy missed playground #4 as he was out cold.  All in all it was a day we felt we would’ve had if we lived here!  We also were exhausted from all the biking and slept really well!

This morning we ventured out for breakfast for Dutch pancakes (another recommendation from a colleague of Cory’s) and they were so yummy!  We proceeded to bike around more finding an art market to walk through.  It has been the most relaxing weekend!

More pictures are below from this long weekend’s fun!

Now on a train to Frankfurt…

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy

So many bikes!

Canal…in the Red Light District

Dutch shoes 

SUV of bikes that Cory drove

Griot Melkhuis Cafe and Playground

One of the many beautiful canals

Lots of leaning buildings

Amsterdam Centraal (train station)

Hello a last time!

Almost time to say good bye…

Our final week was spent in Sydney.  We have stayed in Marriotts, in the big cities, as this is Cory’s consistent hotel chain when he travels.  The local here in the Circular Quay was as amazing as Brisbane (overlooking the Brisbane River and Story Bridge) with a view of the Opera House and harbour.  Cory has spoiled us with our accommodations for sure!  We arrived late (for traveling with little kids standards ha) so we quickly checked in and requested an easy dinner recommendation for our family.  Our meal was delicious but we laughed as the concierge sent us to a restaurant where everyone was in business attire (ps I had sunscreen in my hair from being on the beach earlier in the day) and they didn’t have any high chairs.  Oops!  We made it home, got cleaned up and the room organized for the week.  As you know it’s necessary with kids to be organized or you’ll never find anything.  We are using our second double bed for luggage as Bea requested to stay in a crib and Teddy has floor space in his tent.

With two days left of our family of four vacation, we hit the sites the next morning.  Starting with a pancake house in The Rocks area where Bea had smiley face with ‘mushrooms’ (she meant marshmallows) for eyes. 😉  We walked through The Rocks market where we found lots of fun goodies. It was a beautiful day so we rode the ferry to Manly Beach.  The view didn’t disappoint from what a local had recommended for us….Opera House, Harbour Bridge and amazing houses and sail boats.  We lunched by the boats and just soaked in all the surroundings including a couple of Indigenous men playing the didgeridoo.  It quite intrigued Bea and Teddy!  After naps we walked to dinner only to be reminded that it was Halloween.  Only a small amount of Australians dress up for Halloween; and we found that in Sydney, they interpret it as make a zombie out of whatever costume you can think of with lots of red paint for blood.  We decided this could potentially give Bea nightmares so we quickly found a restaurant off the beaten path.  I got to witness a sweet fireworks show over the Opera House from our hotel window after the kids were down for the night.  So Halloween did have a perk for us after all!

On our last full day of family vacation we were so thankful as it was sunny and warm enough to take it to the beach.  We had an amazing time feeling ‘local’ and watching surfers.  The big kids (aka adults) were far out on boards and the little kids (preteen boys) were close in body surfing.  Teddy thought he was big enough to be in the water so we let him out just far enough to where the larger waves would get up to his waist.  Well these waves were quite forceful and would’ve taken him out to sea had I not been gripping his arms.  Every time the water hit him, he cackled!  We continued to soak in Bondi Beach with lunch overlooking the ocean and a drive through it all on the way back to the hotel.  Teddy and Bea both had worked so hard that they fell asleep on the short drive home.

On Monday Cory headed off to work, and subsequently arrived before anyone else in the office.  We both were apprehensive about today as it had been such amazing quality time for our family but the real world does call.  I was so off my game today!  There are a few reasons.  I’m in an unfamiliar city; I haven’t taken care of the kids alone for 31 days and my google maps wouldn’t work as I’m driving to a location that I didn’t realize had 0 parking. Ha  Needless to say,  Cory has spoiled me!  When we finally arrived, we enjoyed the aquarium and wildlife park.  The aquarium had a dugong (similar to our manatee) and lots of sharks to see.  At the wildlife park, we enjoyed a beautiful butterfly exhibit and watching a crocodile being fed.

Tonight Cory was presenting at an event so the kids and I enjoyed a lovely dinner by the harbour and a walk down to the Opera House.  We saw lots of patrons heading in for a play.  It took me back to when Momma, Daddy and I attended a play there.  I hope the play was better than the one we saw. 😉

Tuesday was a big day for Australia….the Melbourne Cup horse races.  Even though we’re not in Melbourne, they take off work and watch the races at bars/restaurants.  I was able to join Cory and his colleagues this afternoon to watch the races.  It was such a treat to have a ‘date day’ in Sydney!

On our travels we have only tried one museum (where it had a train ride).  Since it turned out well, I thought we’d have another go at the Australia Museum (oldest museum in the country).  It is a natural history museum and had neat skeletons of all sorts of animals including dinosaurs.  It would’ve gone over better had they not had sound effects.  Bea heard the dinosaur sound once, covered her ears and said “can we go?”  Oh mercy!  The saving grace was an area called Kidspace where they had tons of plush, figurine and dress up animals to enjoy.  For lunch we ate at the cafe in the museum and enjoyed a beautiful (though cloudy) view of St Mary’s Cathedral.  On a much sunnier day, 11.5 years ago, I have a picture of Momma and Daddy sitting on the church steps; it was fun to flash back to picture that fun time!

After traveling a bunch, it’s good to take a down day.  So the following day, we had a pj day with room service for breakfast, playing with our toys and watching some cartoons.  I do believe it was a hit.  We did finally get out of the hotel to meet a couple of Cory’s colleagues who had been so hospitable to us.

On our last full day in Australia, it was nice, sunny and hot so we took it to the zoo of course.  It was a fun adventure even before we saw any animals.  We rode the ferry to Taronga Zoo.  The zoo is up on sort of a cliff so then we rode a gondola up to the entrance.  It was super fun!  We made our first stop to see koalas for the last time.  It’s a big zoo with plenty of hills (some I had to run down as walking behind the stroller was harder work)!  Next we found chimpanzees….many chimps including a couple babies.  They walked in a group; when they stopped, one of the baby chimps was right in front of us.  We had a blast watching him play!  We saw two enclosures of elephants because the male is not too friendly.   While the seal show was going on, we saw a personal show from one seal who continued to swim past us while we watched.  Our giraffe and goat viewing was awesome because you could see the Sydney skyline just past the water.  We saw a few silverback gorillas including a baby before Bea said she didn’t want to see anymore animals! Ha  Off we go then!  Back to the hotel to quickly pack and wipe off the sunscreen we had lathered on earlier that morning.  We caught a flight back to Melbourne (business class…thanks Cory) and had our last sleep in Australia.

Bea and Teddy were amazing travelers…again!  Teddy slept the majority of the long flight and Bea slept some and enjoyed a good handful of movies.  Since she enjoyed those movies, we had a bit of a melt down in LAX; but, after a good rest in the stroller, she was good to go!  We were delayed in LA which would’ve caused us to miss our connection in Houston.  However, SWA pulls through again.  They held the plane for us (and a few more people) as it was the last flight to Birmingham that evening.  We were so glad!  Side note, a story about Bea was in last month’s issue of the SWA inflight magazine.

Well, that’s it from the Minton’s Aussie  adventures.  Thank you for letting us share our wonderful time as a family exploring new destinations.

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy

View from our room

Sydney Opera House while riding the ferry

Bondi Beach baby

Dugong at the Aquarium

Ratings Zoo: last koala sighting

Sydney skyline behind giraffes

Heading home

Hi again!

With only a couple weeks left, we are soaking up this beautiful country as much as possible.  This week we get to do it with Sharon; she took off two weeks to play with us while we were in Brisbane and on our ‘beaches’ vacation drive down the coast.  Beaches is a loose term at this point though as we had more rain and less beach than we hoped for.

I mentioned before that Bea can spot a playground a kilometer away.  At home she always requests meals Chick-Fil-A; but, since they don’t have any, it’s Macca’s as they too have great playgrounds.  We didn’t hit the playground this morning, but we did grab a quick breakfast here before heading to Mt Tambourine.  We took a lovely tree top rainforest walk complete with beautiful green butterflies!  Bea had a big time being the leader to point out which arrows to follow.  Next we went to a man made cave to see glow worms.  It was so neat as they started with 300 and are up to 5000 now.  Their goal is 10,000 so they’re on their way.  Teddy wasn’t a huge fan of the dark cave, even with a little red light to show you the worms up close.  After a nice lunch, we drove on to Yamba for the evening.

Yamba is an adorable little town where we walked around window shopping then decided to hit the beach.  We had seen that the weather might not cooperate this week with as much sunshine as we wanted so we took advantage of the sun.  Sharon grabbed the kids pails and shovels which were such a hit!  These kids really do love the beach.  Bea is getting braver with the water but she still prefers to play in the sand.  Teddy, on the other hand, will just walk straight on into the water.  You have to pull him out when we go; he loved the water!  After a beach rinse off, we went back to our hotel as Sharon had found a prize possession we had been looking for (in every freezer in Australia) since we left Adelaide.  See Bea saw an Olaf ice cream before we went to Kangaroo Island; and after a few days of her requesting one, we bought one.  However we put the original Olaf in our campervan freezer and forgot about him.  When we realized it, we didn’t mention it.  Bea never forgets and a couple days into our next city’s adventure she asked where her ice cream was!  So when Sharon found one, we had no option but to go back and eat it immediately!  It didn’t disappoint!

This evening we enjoyed a beautiful dinner in the home of Sharon’s aunt and uncle.  They live in South West Rocks which was on our coastal trip heading south.  They also joined us for breakfast the next morning at the national park and then showed us kangaroos in the wild!  Then it started to pour so we drove on to Port Macquarie.  We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon/evening in our unit along with the new Cinderella movie.  Teddy was over it almost as quickly as it started. Ha

On Wednesday, we went back tourist style starting with finding the koala statues that were hand painted (matching the location in which is was sponsored by) all over Port Macquarie.  Our first was at Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park where we also saw one of every animal including cockatoos (one who came after Sharon who had taken a work call and wasn’t aware), very smelly wombats, meerkats, beautiful cheetahs, snow leopards, koalas and wallabies.  Today Teddy turned a corner because he decided the wallabies weren’t all bad after all and wanted to interact with them.  We let him out of the stroller and off he went walking toward them, grabbing their faces, playing peekaboo with a joey and feeding them.  It might be his confidence to walk is getting greater; but, whatever it was, it was fun to watch!  Needless to say there are plenty of spills with a new walker.   Unfortunately, being in an area where animals are roaming free, it isn’t the cleanest.  Baths were a must when we got back to our unit that afternoon!  Before nap time, we found a handful more koala statues around our lunch spot.  Bea had a big time posing with them all.

On Thursday, we met some friends of Sharon’s at a Ricardo’s Tomato and Strawberry Farm.  Cory and Bea toured the farm then we all went strawberry picking.  We had a blast cutting our specially picked strawberries then even ate a chocolate covered one on the way out.  Why not have chocolate dip at the register!  Our final koala statue was at Cassegrain Winery so we also enjoyed a little wine tasting while we were there.

I drove us to a town called The Entrance this afternoon to our last night’s stay with Sharon.  Since we need more rooms, we’ve stayed in sprawling units that I could actually live in! Ha. This place was no different with a pool off the back patio where we of course swam the next morning.  We made the most of it the next day with pool time then on to lunch and beach time at the Norah Head Rock Pool….then back to the pool. Sweet Teddy however didn’t last for the second pool swim but I did get to hold him while he slept.  This hasn’t happened since he was an infant and I loved every minute of it!

We had an amazing week having Sharon all to ourselves!  Bea and Teddy loved being with her as much as we did.  We soaked up our time with her especially Cory and me as we would chat and play cards at night.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  It was so hard to drop her off at the Sydney airport on Friday night to head home.

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy

Mt. Tambourine

Glow worms

Olaf ice cream

Billabong Koala and Wildlife Park’s statue

Teddy and wallabies

Strawberry picking 

Norah Head Beach

Hello again!

So 11.5 years ago, I came to Brisbane to do an internship at the end of college.  Little did I know, I was adding to my family.  I stayed with the Schaers who took me in as one of their own.  The girls of the family have all come to the states to see us but it’s been 10 years (since our wedding day) that I last saw Sharon, my Aussie mom.

Needless to say, I was quite anxious to get to Brisbane to see everyone.  Our first night in town, we took the City Cat, which is the water taxi on the Brisbane River, to Southbank to meet Sharon for dinner.  The last time I rode the City Cat was with my momma and daddy!  We got to Southbank before Sharon so I was watching to spot her.  I was looking in the wrong direction when Cory said “there she is; she’s running!”  We were both quite excited to see each other that I’m pretty sure I stepped on her toes as I ran to meet her.  I don’t think she minded. 😉  It was a wonderful evening and Bea and Teddy took straight to her!  On our City Cat ride back to our hotel, Bea said “it was really fun to meet Sharon!”

Our first full day in town, Sharon coordinated for us to see Joan (her mom), Kelsey, Shane (her partner), Harlow (their new 2 week young) and Hans (Kelsey’s dad).  It was a beautiful day of catching up, enjoying the spring weather and just taking it all in.  Bea and Teddy jumped right in again with our Aussie family and I couldn’t be happier for my family to meet everyone!  Sharon made dinner at her home for us this evening.  It is just so surreal to be back but feels so normal!

After a day of ‘being a local’, we decided to go tourist again and explore the Australia Zoo.  This is the zoo Steve Irwin started and I didn’t get there on my first visit to Australia.  Sharon and Hans enjoyed the zoo with us and we didn’t miss an animal!  We saw koalas, dingo pups, a tiger, rhinos, zebras giraffes and even got to feed kangaroos, goats and pigs.  They also had water dragons (not in cages) walking all around the zoo; they quite intrigued Teddy as he liked to watch how fast they could move.  Bea said no thanks and would walk wide to avoid them. ha  Of course we didn’t leave out the crocodiles.  Yes, we saw crocs of all kinds (including some American alligators) and ages.  They had a croc who had been born in 1933!  Who knew crocodiles lived that long!  They put on a big show of reptiles, birds and crocs that was amazing!  The birds were actually quite intriguing and birds don’t usually excite me that much.  However, they had these birds (macaws, condors, cockatoos, etc) trained so to fly all around and then back to their enclosure.  Then came the trainers and a crocodile; they are brave souls as they truly let the croc get so close to them to show us different movements that crocs made.  However, when they agitated the croc and finally fed him, they were completely out of breath from being so focused.  Fun side note is that while we ate lunch, we looked up and saw a koala sitting in a tree beside us just snoozing away.  It doesn’t get old to see them!  Some nights are meant for relaxation and movies so that’s just what we did tonight.  After a very early supper and baths, we snuggled up on our double bed (all four of us…while Teddy lasted) and watched Tinkerbell.  Bea has gotten really into fairies lately. 😉

Sharon had arranged such a fun week of seeing friends and family so we took the next morning to meet a friend that I worked with at Driza-bone and her two boys (ages 2 and 4).  Bea had a big time playing with them as I’m sure she misses playing with kids her age regularly at play school.  She has however made sure to practice her ballet skills at every balance beam (or make shift one) she has come across so she won’t be behind in ballet class when we return. 😉

We ended our day with a lovely dinner at Mt. Coot-tha Lookout (beautiful, vast view of Brisbane and we got to see the view before the sun went down too) and Summit restaurant with Sharon and Joan.  The kids were in rare form this night so as you can imagine this type of behavior typically comes with injuries.  Throughout the trip, Bea has skinned her knee and smashed fingers and toes; Teddy has bonked his head and bloodied his mouth more than once.  I thought I had brought enough bandaids for the trip.  As it turns out, I’ve already bought the second box as bandaids as they seem to really help any situation especially for Bea.  As I had seen back home, I’m constantly reminded of how different boys and girls are.  Bea needs a bandaid every time she barely hits something.  Teddy needs a hug only when he’s bleeding or has a pump knot; otherwise, he just keeps on going.

We’ve really enjoyed a balance of touring the city and just relaxing.  Wednesday we did a little of both!  Sharon joined us for breakfast at the hotel before heading out on a City Cat ride down the Brisbane River to an area called New Farm.  It has lovely grassy areas, beautiful jacarandas (purple budded trees that Bea loves) and an awesome playground.  As usual Bea hit the playground running to try out all the new things and today, so did Teddy.  He said I can get to things this time too as he walked all around!  When I get home and Cory goes back to work, I think I have my work cut out for me to keep up with them both!  This afternoon Cory and I both took some time for ourselves; we traded staying with the kids while they napped.  I emptied my backpack before running a couple errands so I’d have room for the items I was purchasing.  It felt so strange to walk out the door without a stroller or diapers. ha  We rounded out our evening by going to see Kelsey, Shane and baby Harlow.  Sharon read Bea and Teddy an Aussie book called Possum Magic; it’s a precious book!

So when you’ve been away from home for a month, you tend to need some downtime.  We took some the next morning by not leaving the hotel until 5pm!  We had a jammie morning (as we like to call it) and just relaxed.  We had breakfast in the restaurant downstairs outside soaking in the sunshine.  The sun is definitely more intense here so you don’t stay outside very long without putting 30+spf sunscreen on at all times.  Thank goodness Bea and Teddy don’t mind be lathered up.

Tonight we were scheduled to have a family BBQ at Southbank but the rain took us to Sharon’s sister, Melinda’s house instead.  We got to see Melinda, her husband and 2 girls; their daughters were 3 and 5 years the last time I saw them. 😉  Needless to say they have grown up and were so sweet playing with Bea and Teddy.  Sharon, Joan and Cory did all the cooking and it was delicious!

On Friday of this week, Cory trained down to Surfer’s Paradise in the Gold Coast to see the beaches and enjoy Aussie V8 Supercar races.  He had so much fun seeing their beautiful beaches as well as watching their V8s….the race cars are the same car Cory drives daily at home!  With only a couple more days in Brisbane, we wanted to visit with our Aussie family as much as possible so that’s just what we did.  We hung out at Sharon’s house as well as hitting a playground with a zip line!  Cory and I acted like big kids then said our goodbyes to Joan, Hans, Kelsey, Shane and baby Harlow.  It was so much fun but saying good bye this time was even harder.  It has been amazing to watch my family meet and fall in love with my Aussie family like I did.  I’m not sure they realize what a God-send they were when they said “sure we’ll host this American girl at our house.”  I’m so incredibly thankful they did!

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy

City Cat ride

Aussie family pics: Joan and Sharon (top left), Hans (top right), Baby Harlow (bottom left), Shane (bottom middle), Kelsey (bottom right)
Kangaroo feeding time

Brisbane is a beautiful city!

Bea loves the jacarandas!

Daddy taught Bea to climb her first tree!

Sharon reading to Bea and Teddy

G’day mates! (A lady taught Bea to say this!)

And back to warmer weather…we flew to Hervey Bay for our first stop in the state of Queensland.  A quick night’s sleep at a beautiful hotel called Oceans and then a quick ferry ride over to Fraser Island.  We had a relaxing swim (in a cold pool) this morning and Teddy has still snuck in some morning naps while in the campervan as well as the stroller.  After a quick room switch (our only travel issues thus far), we had a relaxing afternoon of 3+ hour naps and Cory fixed supper in our villa.  Our issue with our initial room is that required many steps or a long, steep hill to get to it.  Neither were great options with a stroller!

We were up early the next morning to catch our boat for the humpback whale watching trip.  I had always wanted to do this but wasn’t quite prepared when I first saw these magnificent creatures.  It was breathtaking!  We rode for about an hour before we stopped at our first ‘pod’ of whales; most pods include a momma and calf.  This pod didn’t disappoint as the calf practiced his breeching as he swam along side his momma.  We saw a few more pods who breeched, blew (meaning they shot air out of their spout), gave a pectoral slap with their fin and plenty of tail slapping.  Our last pod of the day was the pinnacle as these whales came to people watch!  As they came toward our boat (very trusting of us), we realized it was 2 mommas, 2 calves and an escort they called him as they didn’t know if it was another female or a male.  These whales were quite interested in us and did a bunch of ‘spy hopping’ where they popped their head out of the water to see us.  As well as swimming back and forth underneath our boat!  We hurried from one side to the next to get close up pictures… and I mean close up!  They were so close you could see the spots on their head.  They are the most amazing creatures I have ever seen!  After such an amazing morning, we all took naps before an evening swim and dinner.

We had another full day with our ‘Beauty Spot 4WD Tour‘ led by guide Peter Meyer.  Thank goodness neither of our kids get motion sickness as we sat on the next to back row (kids in car seats) as we enjoyed what felt like an all day roller coaster ride.  You have to drive a 4WD on the island because there are very few sealed (as they call them) roads and the rest is all sand.  After a fun ride with Teddy kicking his legs and giggling, we stopped in one of the many rain water lakes called Lake McKenzie.  Next was Wanggaoolba, or Invisible Creek where we did a 30 minute hike which included 120+ stairs at the end….all of which Bea climbed herself!  We saw a couple of yellow spotted monitor lizards, yellow/leafy looking spider and another big spider Bea found that morning.  Soon after she saw the big spider, Bea said “Will you hold me please, Daddy?”  😉  It was a fun day of remembering a similar tour I took with my sister Nan and cousin Rebecca 11.5 years ago on this island.  After lunch, we drove on the beach where we saw 2 dingo pups and their mom who had stolen some food from someone’s camp!  By the way, our bus was a 48 seater with 4WD so the back of the bus was bumpy!  Cory and Bea took a scenic plane ride over the island and Bea was glued to the window the whole time!  They took off and landed on the beach.  Our last swimming spot of the day was at Eli Creek where it’s like a lazy river.  I thought the kids would love this….wrong!  It was quite cold water and they both virtually cried the whole time; so we carried them. ha  On our way home, we got a flat tire so unfortunately we had to wake Teddy while it was changed.  Thankfully though the guide was quick and we were back on the sandy road in no time.  We decided after such a full day that another dinner in was a good idea.

The next morning we said good bye to Fraser Island and took the ferry back over to Hervey Bay to rent a car.  We headed south to Tewantin/Noosa Heads area for the evening.  It is a beautiful little beach town where we sat outside for supper and enjoyed an ice cream after dinner.  Tonight we stayed in another villa at a holiday park.  These holiday parks are so perfect for a family on their travels.

Next is Brisbane….

Love,
Cory, Millie, Bea & Teddy
Teddy sleeping on Fraser Island in stroller

Humpback Whale: first four pictures are of a full breech including the splash then a close up a momma and calf. You can see her eye we’re so close!

4WD Tour: hiking through the rainforest, Lake McKenzie, Cory and Bea’s float plane ride